More Mothers Are Staying at Home With Their Kids

After a steady 30-year decline, the number of mothers staying at home to take care of their children is once again on the rise, a new study from Pew reports. Based on census bureau data, the study found that in 2012, 29% of mothers age 18 to 69 with children under 18 living with them, did not work outside the home—that's about 10.4 million more women than in 1999. Of that number, two-thirds are married, stay-at-home mothers with working husbands, but the other third is compromised of single mothers or married women with non-working or absent husbands.

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But not all of these women are staying at home by choice. The study finds that six percent of women in 2012 reported that they were staying home because they were unable to find a job, compared to one percent in 2000. Other reasons for staying home were due to illness, disability, or being enrolled in school. The study also cites the economic downturn as a major contributor to the stay-at-home trend, with women—especially those without college educations—weighing the high cost of childcare against their own earnings.

"One of the most striking demographic differences between stay-at-home mothers and working mothers relates to their economic well-being. Fully a third (34 percent) of stay-at-home mothers are living in poverty, compared with 12 percent of working mothers," say the authors of the report. They also find that more immigrants stay at home with their children than American-born mothers and more Hispanic and Asian mothers than white or black mothers.

The Pew study also notes that stay-at-home fathers "represent a small but growing share of all stay-at-home parents," which is good news since the study also found that "60 percent of Americans say children are better off when a parent stays home to focus on the family." And why should women have to stay home to do all the work?